Argus C44 (1956-1957)

This Argus C44 was made in Ann Arbor, Michigan, by Argus Cameras during 1957. Argus made about 85,000 of them from 1956 to 1957. It was an improved Argus C4, adding interchangeable lenses and increasing the top shutter speed from 200 to 300. It was followed by the rapid wind version of the C44.

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Film Chamber

Lens Mount

Additional Lenses - 35 mm f/4.5, 50 mm f/1.9 and 100 mm f/3.5.

Auxiliary Viewfinder

Advancing the film cocks the shutter, which can be set for 1/10, 1/25, 1/50, 1/100 or 1/300 second, or B (bulb). The B setting opens the shutter for as long as the shutter release is depressed.

The camera had a hot shoe on the top for the Argus Flasholder. The flasholder could take type M or type F flashbulbs. There was a switch on the back of the camera to select the type of bulb. Deciding the correct exposure for a flash picture took a little arithmetic. You divided the guide number associated with the size of flashbulb and the speed rating of the film by the distance to the subject to get aperture setting for the lens. Automatic electronic flash really simplified things when it came out in the 1970s.

The standard lens was the f/2.8-22 50mm coated Argus Cintagon, which was one of the first camera lenses to be designed with the aid of an electronic computer. Argus used the MIDAC computer located at the University of Michigan to do the calculations. The Cintagon was a tessar design and had a rare earth crown element. The lens was made in Argus's own optical shop.

Additional lenses were made for Argus by Steinheil, Munich, West Germany. They included an f/4.5-22 35 mm wide angle lens, an f/1.9-22 50 mm fast normal lens, and an f/3.5-22 100 mm telephoto lens. All were coated and were marked Argus Cintagon. The standard lens could take Series V drop in filters. The additional lenses took Series VI drop in filters.  Leather cases were available for the lenses.  Lens caps were not provided.  A third party 58mm pinch type lens cap will fit the front of the lens hood on the 50 mm f/1.9 and 100 mm f/3.5 lenses.  The slightly wider lens hood on the 35 mm f/4.5 lens takes a 60 mm pinch type lens cap.

 A variable power viewfinder that fit in the hot shoe could be set for 35, 50 or 100 mm using a knob on the side of the viewfinder. The variable power finder also could be adjusted to correct for parallax. Because the finder took the place of the flasholder in the hot shoe, a flash extension bracket needed to be plugged into the viewfinder to let you use flash when you were using the auxiliary viewfinder.

The rangefinder was the coincident type with a round rangefinder spot in the center of the camera viewfinder. You centered the rangefinder spot on the subject, then focused the lens until both images in the spot coincided. You then composed your picture using either the camera viewfinder or the auxiliary view finder.

The lens mount is complicated by the need to couple the lens to the range finder with an external gear. Most makers of interchangeable lens range finder cameras used a cam in the lens and a cam follower in the camera to transmit distance information from the lens to the range finder. Argus used an external gear to transmit distance information to the range finder. To remove a lens the distance needed to be set to infinity, and the latch at the bottom of the lens mount pushed in while turning the lens mount about 45 degrees counter-clockwise, where the lens could be lifted straight out. To replace the lens you needed to align the red dots on the lens and lens mount, put the lens in the mount and turn clockwise until the lens latched.

The C44 can make a decent picture. The only US made rival to the C44 was the Kodak Signet 80. Imported 35 mm single lens reflex cameras, particularly the Pentax Spotmatic, took over the market for 35 mm cameras in the 1960s, and Argus stop making 35 mm cameras in the USA in 1966. Kodak stopped in 1969. Most of the West German camera makers closed in the 1970s. Only Leica survived as a maker of luxury cameras. East Germany continued to sell for $200 cameras that cost $600 to make, but that ended after the collapse of the communist economic fantasy in 1989.

Argus C4 (1951-1957)

The Argus C4 was made in Ann Arbor, Michigan, by Argus Cameras from 1951 to 1957. This one was made in 1952. The C4 used the same body style as the earlier model 21 "Markfinder", but with a added coupled coincident rangefinder and an improved lens. Argus sold about 300,000 C4s in seven years, compared to about 2,000,000 C3s in roughly twenty-four years. The list price in June, 1951, was $99.50, equivalent in buying power to about $1,090 in depreciated 2022 dollars. Although retailers such as Sears usually would discount the list price by 10 or 15 percent, this was not a cheap camera.

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Film Chamber

The camera has an f/2.8-f/22, 50mm, coated Cintar lens with three elements in three groups. The closest focus distance is three feet. You can use Series VI drop-in lens filters with a 1-5/16" (33 mm) push-on adapter, a Kodak No. 26 screw-in adapter or a Tiffen No. 640 screw-in adapter. The behind-the-lens shutter has speeds of 1/10, 1/25, 1/50, 1/100 and 1/200 second plus B (bulb). Advancing the film cocks the shutter. The viewfinder has a round coincident range finder patch in the center, but has lost the bright frame lines of the model 21. Either Argus' engineers couldn't squeeze the frame lines and the range finder into the space available within cost constraints or there was some patent interference involved. The whole back comes off to load familiar 35 mm film. The picture counter counts down from the number of pictures on the roll of film to zero and needs to be manually set to 36 or whatever length roll of film you have loaded. Rewinding the film requires lifting the film advance knob and rotating it a quarter turn, then turning the rewind knob until the film is rewound into the cassette. The C4 has a hot shoe for the matching Argus flasholder. Flash synchronization is switchable between type M and type F flash bulbs. There aren't any strap lugs. If you want to use a neck strap you need to put the camera inside its leather case or use a strap that attaches to the tripod socket.

The C4 is one of the nicer looking cameras Argus made and is a decent picture taker. The shutter has a noticeable, noisy "snick" when it fires.

[Update] The C4 was updated during its production run to change the fastest shutter speed from 1/200 to 1/300 second, and to change the flash sync switch from M-F for type M or type F flash bulbs to M-X for type M flash bulbs or electronic flash. The winding knobs also were changed to a finer knurling. The last C4, the C4R, had a thumb lever film advance instead of a knob wind advance and a rewind crank instead of a rewind knob.

[Update] The instruction book said that the lens had a resolving power of 120 lines/mm at the center, which is a good specification.

Argus C4 Advertisement from Popular Photography, June, 1951.

Kodak Brownie Reflex Synchro Model (1941-1952)

The Kodak Brownie Reflex Synchro Model was made in Rochester, NY, from 1941 through 1952, with a break in 1942-45 caused by the Second World War. It has a simple, uncoated, fixed focus meniscus lens and a single speed shutter with a time setting. The finder is a large, waist level brilliant finder. A Brownie Flasholder attaches to the posts on the side and top and plugs into the pins on the front. The camera takes the Kodak 127 film that was discontinued in 1995. This is yet another iteration of the basic Brownie box camera that Eastman Kodak Company made starting in 1900. There are about 100 different versions of the Kodak Brownie. Untold millions of family snapshots were taken using them.

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Through the Viewfinder

Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Camera Flash Model (1950-1961)

This Brownie Hawkeye was made in Rochester, NY, in 1953. It takes twelve 2-1/4" square pictures on a roll of Kodak 620 film. 

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The lens on the Brownie Hawkeye is a simple f/15 uncoated glass meniscus lens. The shutter is a single speed (about 1/50 second) rotary shutter with instantaneous or long exposure settings. The viewfinder is a waist level brilliant finder. The camera body was designed by Arthur H. Crapsey, Jr. Eastman Kodak Company made these cameras by the million and they are not hard to find. Their simple construction makes them easy to clean up. They supposedly are popular among hipsters. Kodak 620 film was discontinued in 1995, but you can re-spool current 120 size film onto 620 spools. It also is sometimes possible to squeeze a 120 film into the supply holder and use a 620 spool in the take-up holder. This camera has some re-spooled 120 loaded. The number 1 is visible through the little red window on the back of the camera. It is a good idea to cover the window with a piece of black tape if the camera is going to be used outside. Daylight coming through the red window can expose modern film, which is more sensitive to red light than the films available for the Hawkeye when it was new.

Before he went to work for Kodak, Arthur H. Crapsey, Jr. was a B-17 bomber pilot in the European Theater of Operations. He was wounded in action over Germany in 1943, losing a leg to his wounds.

Probably the most famous user of a Brownie Hawkeye is former President Bill Clinton. I recall seeing a photo of a 16 year old Clinton carrying one at the Boys Nation meeting in 1962, where he got to shake hands with President John Kennedy.

[Update] Oops. I replaced the top lens on the viewfinder upside down. This is fixed now.

[Update] The camera can still take a picture. This was shot on 120 Ultrafine eXtreme 100 respooled onto a 620 spool, developed in D-76 and scanned on an Epson 4990 photo scanner.

The Readers, an outdoor sculpture at Sally Beaman Park, Nashville, Tennessee. The Green Hills branch of the Nashville public library is in the background.

The Hawkeye name came to Kodak from Samuel N. Turner's Boston Camera Company by way of the Blair Camera Company. Turner was the first to put picture numbers on roll film backing paper and Eastman bought the company to get the patents. Kodak produced a number of cameras with the Hawkeye name.

Kodak Bantam Special (1936-1940)

This Kodak Bantam Special was made in Rochester, New York during the 1930s. It has an uncoated f/2.0 46 mm Kodak Anastigmat Ektar lens in a Deckel Compur-Rapid shutter. It takes size 828 film, which is 35 mm wide, but with a paper backing and only one perforation per picture. The picture size is 28 mm x 40 mm and there are 8 pictures on a roll of film. 35 mm cameras had become popular by 1936, and Kodak already had its own 35 mm camera, the Retina built by Kodak AG in Stuttgart-Wangen, Germany, but Kodak saw its Bantam size cameras as an excellent alternative, and pushed the format hard. They produced cameras ranging from simple and inexpensive to full featured luxury models. The luxury model was the Bantam Special designed by Walter Dorwin Teague, one of the fathers of modern American industrial design. An example of this camera is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/490903. The original list price was $110 in 1936, which is equivalent in buying power to more than two thousand dollars in 2018.

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Film Chamber

The camera is functionally similar to the made-in-Germany Kodak Retina II 35 mm camera (also introduced in 1936). The Bantam Special has separate viewfinder and range finder eyepieces. The range finder is a split image range finder like the one on the Kodak Medalist. Film is loaded into the camera the same way as other Kodak roll film cameras. You would turn the winding knob until the film automatically stopped at the first exposure. The little green window on the back of the camera lets you see the picture number printed on the backing paper. To advance the film you press the small button on the upper left and turn the winding knob until the film automatically stopped at the next picture. The shutter is not interlocked with the film advance. You could accidentally double expose a picture or skip a picture. The shutter speeds are T (time), B (bulb), 1 second, 1/2, 1/5, 1/10, 1/25, 1/50, 1/100, 1/250 and 1/500. The lens settings are f/2 through f/16. Close focusing distance is 3.5 feet or 1 meter. The focusing scale on my camera is marked in meters, making it an export model.  Kodak did actually export cameras made in the USA.

The Second World War interrupted the supply of shutters from Germany, and in 1941 Kodak changed the shutter on the Bantam Special from the Compur-Rapid to the similar Kodak Supermatic. The new version of the Bantam Special stayed in the catalog until 1948. Kodak finally stopped making all cameras for 828 film in the 1950s and discontinued 828 film in 1985. The one perforation per picture idea lived on in Instamatic (size 126) and Pocket Instamatic (size 110) film.

The shutter on this camera is not working properly, the view finder is fogged, and the only source of fresh 828 film is Film for Classics at $18 for an 8 exposure roll of Tri-X. It might not become a user camera. [Update] A careful look through the lens showed some possible fungus inside, which is another strike against this camera becoming something other than a display piece.